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| Cuban prison hunger striker dies | Cuban prison hunger striker dies |
| (21 minutes later) | |
| Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo has died in hospital after 85 days on hunger strike, hospital and opposition sources say. | |
| Mr Zapata, 42, had been admitted to Havana's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital after his condition deteriorated. | |
| Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience after his arrest in March 2003. | Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience after his arrest in March 2003. |
| He had been involved in a protest to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. | He had been involved in a protest to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. |
| He died between 1530 and 1600 local time (2030-2100 GMT) on Tuesday, Efe news agency reports. | |
| One of the main US Spanish-language dailies, El Nuevo Herald, says his death marks the first time in nearly 40 years a Cuban activist starved himself to death to protest against government abuses. | |
| His mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, told the paper by telephone that her son had been "murdered" by Cuba's authorities. | |
| "They managed to do what they wanted," she said. "They ended the life of a fighter for human rights.'' | |
| According to the paper, the last political prisoner to die on hunger strike in Cuba was Pedro Luis Boitel, a poet and student leader, who died in 1972. |